Dust

Who, who are you really? A long-time member of the Aikka clan, Dust spent his younger years jumping from role to role, unsure of what he wanted to do. Currently, he finds a nice middle-ground in being a security guard for the Oddyssey Troupe during its touring months, and an exaltee trainer for the Aikka clan during the Troupe's off months. Dust is even-tempered, and hard to shake, even in a stressful situation. It's a necessary personality trait to have if you're mainly either dealing with rowdy drunks, angry customers, or training dragons in battle. Still, he's mild-mannered to the point of being described as boring by some dragons. He's not stand-offish or stubborn, or too serious; he's not overly-jubilant or excitable; he's not particularly snappy or moody either. More often then not, it more just feels like he's... there. He has an unintentional habit of blending into the background of wherever he is, for better or for worse. Still, if you manage to notice him and strike up a conversation, he can actually be quite witty, loving word play and word games. Still, Dust is nothing else if not professional. Serious casualties are very rare when he is supervising things, and he has learned quite a lot from Irazu on the art of de-escalation, so he's often called in when things get too rowdy. He also is great at giving gentle squeezes on the shoulder for comfort or support. And, he's not too bad at shoulder massages!

Steam Gyre Familiar This spirit hovers around The Great Furnace. It is only visible as a manifestation in the vapors of the steam produced by the forges. 1800 Firestarter Organics These baubles spontaneously produce embers. Great for starting a campfire, great for burning your den down. 21 Burrowing Chitin Breastplate Apparel Multiple segments of chitin provide an armored defense for the wearer. 1000 Accent: WC M Pink Glass Glow Wildclaw Male Only Accents are equippable items that can be worn like a coat of paint on top of the skin of your dragon. The look of the accent will not be passed onto offspring and may be unequipped at any time. (Designed by Pesticide.) Itemid #7646

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Dust struck out from his home clan as soon as he was of age. When he was younger, he felt too overshadowed by his father, an accomplished and decorated hunter, and decided he needed to go out into the world to prove himself. This often resulted in him getting his butt kicked, as he sought out to fight things much stronger and more experienced than himself. He scrapped across Arcane territory, into Earth, wandering into Shadow territory after that.

It was on the northern shore of Shadow territory where Dust got into a comically one-sided fight with a giant spiney whale. During the tussle, it grabbed him by the leg and thrashed him all the way to the shore of the Viridian Labyrinth, where he was deposited like a sad lump on the sandy shore. A gaggle of dragons visiting the local market had gathered to watch the spectacle, nervously giggling and gossiping as they watched from the edge of the beach. Finally, when the whale swam away and it was safe, a few dragons approached, including Czar. She took the helpless whelp back home to the Aikka clan to recover after a local healer wrapped up Dust's more egregious wounds.

Pride hurt, Dust attempted to brush off the help the Aikka clan offered, trying to limp off into the dangerous swamp lands after denying a fresh change of bandages just two days later. When Banana became frantic trying to convince him not to leave, Risen stepped in and quite literally beat him back into bed. (Not because he cared about Dust, he just didn't like seeing his girlfriend stressed out over such a stupid kid.) It took three thrashings from Risen for Dust to eventually give in and let Banana and their other healer treat his wounds as he recovered.

Once he was back on his feet, he challenged Risen to a duel, where he was, once again, thrashed beyond belief. His pride shattered after so many consecutive losses, Dust moped around the med bay in the clan, inconsolable. Jubilee, still a teen himself at the time, ended up giving Dust the pick-me-up he needed; he offered to become Dust's sparring partner, which Dust, after some convincing, accepted.

The two were fast friends, finding out they had much in common as they got to know each other. They helped each other to learn and grow and get stronger. Dust helped Jubilee work out his more mischievous nature to something more manageable, while Jubilee helped Dust let go of his hot-headed attempts to live up to his father's legacy.

When The Oddyssey Troupe came around one year, Dust accompanied Banana and Jubilee to see the performances, meeting Irazu by chance as he perused the stalls. After a whirlwind of a discussion, she somehow managed to convince him to sign on as an amateur security guard.

And so, when the next tour started, Dust joined the entourage in its bi-yearly circuit across the local territories. He came to love the Oddyssey Troupe's regular crew and getting to tour Sornieth while meeting all sorts of folks, so he agreed to continue signing on for all the touring seasons that followed.

A few years ago, Isato joined the Troupe one circuit as a vendor. When a rowdy customer threatened to tear down her stall in a fit of rage over an argument over prices, Dust came and rescued (her words) the small Skydancer from the situation. She quickly began to crush on him after the incident, and after a year of awkward pining and failed flirting, managed to ask him out. The two have been in a gentle, quiet relationship, and are content to take things slow, especially since Dust is still a bit tender from his divorce from Poinsetta years ago.

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"...So then, I'm gonna distract him by pretending I've broken the horn off my helmet. Then, you come in and replace his leather gloves with Czar's gardening gloves!"

"Wait, how did you know I was out of ultramarine paint? Well, you've saved me a trip to the market later. Thank you, sweetheart!"

"Now, Dust, I don't mean to alarm, you, but we have a code 7 over by Apollo's Atomic Coasters. No one else can do the job as well as you! Get to it! ...Don't give me that look, young man!"

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"Alright, so..."

Dust let the sentence trail off as he made himself comfortable in the moss hammock. He sat in the middle of it, his legs dangling off the side, swinging them back and forth a bit. The feathered tip of his tail grazed the ground below as it flicked about nervously.

Sat across from him was Banana, the recently Fae-turned-Nocturne, attempting to get herself settled in as well. The way she shifted, unsteady and shaking, in the hammock betrayed the otherwise calm aura she seemed to have. Going from Fae to Nocturne had doubled her in size. While that wasn't a lot considering a Fae's diminutive stature, she still was struggling with maneuvering her much heavier and larger body. As she found a stable position to rest herself in, she looked up at Dust. He was pretty sure that was supposed to be an expectant look, but her face was still as expressionless as ever in his eyes.

Still, now he felt awkward about staring. Should he have been helping her? "Um, are you comfortable?"

Right, smartass. Great question.

"...I suppose," came the level response. Her voice no longer carried the faint buzzing tone Fae voices naturally have, but she still had no grasp on emoting either. She sounded a bit like a robot now.

"Right! Great!" He did his best to be peppy, trying to cut through the awkward tension starting to form before it could settle on them like a bad fog. "Let's start with the usual again? Facial expressions first?"

She stared at him for a moment, the muscles around her horns twitching ever so slightly. It took a full two seconds before she nodded her head, remembering the non-Fae way of giving the affirmative. Good!

"Alright, first card," he said, happy to get their latest lesson started. He grabbed the pile of expression cards on the table next to him, careful not to pierce the delicate paper with his sharp claws. He spread the cards between his fingers for just a moment, before picking the first expression: a drawing of a Mirror with a confused look, the word 'Confused' written in large, bold text beneath.

On cue, Banana did her best to mimic the expression. She flexed the muscles around her eyes several times, her lips moving up and down as she scrunched up her face in an attempt to copy the confused look. Finally, she settled on a decent attempt at the expression: lips drawn tight, brows knitted, but eyes still opened normal.

"Pretty good first attempt!" he praised her. He put the pile down and grabbed a hand mirror with his free hand, showing her her face. "Try squinting a bit more, maybe a little frown for me?" He made the face as well, for her to follow his example.

She held the pose patiently, flicking her eyes from the 'Confused' card, to him, to her reflection, several times, until she had tweaked the expression just right.

"Wonderful!" He put the mirror down and then tossed her a honey-covered ant from the snack bowl, as was their tradition. She munched it down quickly as he put the card aside to pick a new expression from the pile: he sifted for a few seconds before settling on 'Happy,' a drawing of a big fluffy Tundra with the goofiest smile adorning it.

He flashed her the card. She stared at it for a second, before flashing her gums in a big show of teeth. That was definitely more of a grimace.

"Ok, try relaxing your mouth a bit." She let her jaw hang open a bit. "No, not like that. Let your lips relax a bit. You pulled them back too far." She squinted her eyes a bit as she thought about it (She's getting better at emoting without being prompted! he thought, celebrating silently). She closed her teeth and relaxed her lips as instructed. "Ok, now turn the corners of your mouth up, like this," he instructed, taking the edge of his lip in his own claw and pulling it up to exaggerate.

Without even thinking about it, Banana mimicked the move exactly, lifting her own free hand to grab one corner of her mouth and lifting it as well.

"Um, without your finger, please," he elaborated, speaking around his own digit as he corrected her.

"...Ah," she said, also around her own finger, as she let go, shakily lifting her cheeks to curve upwards.

"Better!" He showed her the mirror again, smiling at her. "I think you're getting better at this one!"

"...If you say so," she said, examining herself in the mirror, looking back and forth between it and him.

"I wouldn't lie to you, Ms. Banana!" he chirped, putting the mirror down and tossing her another honey covered ant. Leaning over the expression pile, he muttered, "Now, next, let's do..."




Art by my friend, Apex


Breeding card by NonbinaryFrogs